8 Tips for the Best Camp Bachelorette Retreat
I decided to write a post about tips for a Camp Bachelorette retreat because my bachelorette weekend was one of my favorite parts of the wedding process. Initially I wasn’t as excited about the bachelorette trip and it was just another thing to plan. But once I realized I could do something more relaxing, like a retreat, I started getting excited. Below are my tips for a Camp Bachelorette retreat!
1) Pick a location that is drivable for your friends
I had plenty of big ideas for my bachelorette weekend thinking that we had to go somewhere GRAND for it to be memorable. At first it was going to be Lake Tahoe and then Rocky Mountain National Park, but we actually ended up going to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. In the end, this was one of the best decisions I made throughout the wedding process!
Harpers Ferry is beautiful, but it was not as much about where we were that made it so special. You’ll find that your Camp Bach weekend is all about the friends that love you gathering together. It’s not very often that all your friends from different periods of life hike, roast s’mores, and play games together!
Since we picked somewhere drivable, we did not have to worry about coordinating flights or rental cars and it was much easier for people to commit to a 1-2 hour drive rather than booking a $300 plane ticket. The last thing you need leading up to a wedding is more stress, so make your Camp Bach weekend relaxing.
2) Embrace the nature vibes
I found being in nature super calming, especially after the stress of planning a wedding. Our theme for the Camp Bach weekend was “Girls Gone Mild”. Some activities we had on the itinerary to achieve these vibes included a sunrise hike (we did Weverton Cliffs), river tubing, hot tub time under the stars, and roasting s’mores.
Our cabin also had an outdoor shower which I did not use, but I heard it was very relaxing and gave strong nature vibes.
3) Have a trail mix bar
At first this was just a cute picture opportunity, but then, the trail mix bar snacks slowly became a crowd favorite throughout the weekend. I just got a few bulk items from Costco (goldfish, peanut-filled pretzels, peanut m&ms, and pumpkin seeds and we had everyone make a snack bag that lasted the whole weekend. These snack bags were also easy/ready-to-go for the hiking and tubing outings.
Trail mix bar is practical and on-brand for the Parent Trap vibes we were aiming for. If only we had peanut butter and Oreos the Parent Trap vibe would have been complete!
4) Have some pre-planned games about bride or bride/groom
Some of my absolute FAVORITE memories from Camp Bach were the pre-planned games. My maid-of-honor (MOH) planned several amazing things throughout the weekend, but two of my favorite things were 1) a surprise pre-recorded video from my fiancé that my MOH coordinated 2) bride/wedding/groom Jeopardy!
For the pre-recorded video, my MOH asked my fiancé a list of questions, for example “what was the best gift you ever got Chelsea and what was the best gift you’ve ever received from Chelsea”? We set up the video and paused right after the question, then I would have to say what I thought he was going to answer and we would then play the video to see how close the answers were/see how well the bride and groom know each other! It was super unexpected and special so I would highly recommend asking someone to do this for you!
Bach Jeopardy is pretty much just like the show but a bit more relaxed! You may want to help whoever is planning with this so you can talk through your answers and how you want to score! The categories we used included things like the wedding, the bride, the groom, so high school, etc. 10/10 recommend playing this if you have the time to set it up beforehand.
5) Make games team-based
Friends from several different periods of my life came together at Camp Bach and having team-based games helped everyone mingle and bond.
We switched up the teams for each game so that everyone could talk to different people. For teams, we had a bag of rocks, some painted blue and some painted pink, again courtesy of my AMAZING MOH. The girls picked a rock out of the bag and VOILA, new teams!
6) Have Camp Bach the weekend before the wedding
This was so unintentionally old-school! And honestly, I wanted to have it a few months prior, but this is what ended up working best because most of my out of town friends could not fly home for the bach and the wedding, so having it the weekend before the wedding meant more people could come.
Another pro of this is that all your friends become friends at Camp Bach and the good vibes and energy carries straight on to the wedding!! It was also a good way to take my mind off the stress of last minute planning. Almost like a pre-wedding retreat 🙂
7) Have someone make a casserole or two for breakfast throughout the weekend
Our cabin was not too close to town, so staying in for breakfast was the vibe rather than going out. I really wanted New York bagels for some reason, but being how this was unrealistic as we were going to be in middle of nowhere West Virginia, we decided before the trip to do breakfast casseroles instead.
Two of my friends graciously provided two incredible casseroles. Casseroles are great because if you make them ahead you can just heat them up and they are good at feeding large groups.
8) Matching shirts
Not a must by any means, and I wanted to make the trip budget-friendly so I bought these for my friends rather than having them pay, but it was fun to have everyone match, especially for the morning hike.
If you are on the budget you can always design a shirt on Etsy and let everyone know that they can purchase one if they would like but that it’s not required. I added this on because my shirt serves as a great memory of the trip!
These are my top tips for a Camp Bachelorette retreat, I think you’ll end up have a great time. Happy Camp Bach planning! And let me know if you have any questions!
If you are interested in tips for picking a date and venue for you upcoming wedding, check out my tips for that here. If you are interested in having an outdoor wedding in Maryland, I posted several pictures of our outdoor wedding at the Howard County Conservancy in this recent post.
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